I guess the ONE good sign since I found things so wet.....I used vermicrete for my hearth insulation and even though I have had water literally dripping out of all four side of my support slab/insulating slab....the oven has NOT sunk down into the vermicrete. This stuff must hold up pretty well. That was my greatest fear at the time (along with the loud cursing my neighbors children might have heard.. I still have another round of all day scarry firing to drive out more water, then I am hoping things will be good again after use of the tarp.

Frances, that sounds exactly how my oven reacted all of last yr. - Sluggish to worm up. Now that this has happenend, I'm left wondering if the sluggishness was the start of something worse to come. we had our typical daily rains for the oast two yrs, thistime around the rains/wind were longerperiods, with monsoon like horizontal rains attacking my ove from a different direction each day'.

The tarp is the near solution, some type of roofing systm will go up this fall/winter. I plan to try and work around the mosaic, just a simple basic roof structure that extends over the enty. if it looks too tacky, I will turn it into a full "house" style - hiding the month long mosaic job, not what I want, but i gotta keek that rain out.

Hi RT
Sorry to hear about your flooding problems. The horizontal rains have been a worry of mine too. How often do you use your oven this time of year? Also do you use it in the rain and have you seen any adverse effects to the structure from this?

I've had the same symptons and issues with my oven this year. I had friends coming over on Saturday, but didn't know what time, so I fired up the oven early. About 3 or so hours into the firing, I noticed moisture where the chimney & concrete roof meet, then another 1/2 hour or so I saw a large wet spot on the side. Looked on the opposite side and the bricks were wet and starting to steam. I have blanket insulation plus the sides are filled with vermicrete, approx 5". I'm thinking of a roof also, just don't know how to incorporate the design.

Larry, I'm down to once a month, probably until Oct. Just too damn hot/humid during the summer, really takes the fun out of using the oven; throw in the threat of rain, and you can't plan on anything.
I have used it in light rain with no ill effects, my oven is somewhat shielded (big palm and oak tree and right next to my screen enclosure). but any driving rain coming from the S or SE goes straight into the entry, even with both doors in place. Let water get to one firebrick and they all suck up water faster than a SHAMWOW.

The cover works great, covered the oven up last night, then we had serious Tstorms about 4 am this morning (at least 1-2" or rain). not a drop made it into the oven.....not so hard to open it up to check, but it will be a pain removing/folding when I want to use it.

Stephen, thanks for the compliment.
To answer your questions:
Initially, I planned to only make a cover for the arch/entry that would wrap around the Duravent pipe. Not being 100% certain water was not getting in somewhere else, I decided to cove the whole thing...to just below the hearth slab level.
I measured and found that a 10' x 12' heavy duty tarp that is silver on on side , brown on the other would fit perfectly.....a little more eye appealing than the construction site "my roof is gone" blue tarps. I then measured how far up from the bottom of the hearth slab the Duravent is, cut a slit in the tarp as well a hole about 1" larger than the Duravent pipe. I then used self stick velcro strips on the two flaps created by slitting the tarp and placed self stick 1/2" rubber weather stripping around the underside edge of the hole that I cut out. Slide the tarp up from behind, around the pipe, and overlap the flaps.
Rather than bungee cords or tarp straps, I laced rope through the tarp eyelets allowing me to cinch it around my oven's "waist" to keep it from blowing off in high winds. only takes a minute to open in up and slide it off the back side. I'm pretty sure I will completely remove it for fall/winter/spring, the REALLY heavy rains are few and far between then.

It really is effective, but my oven "is what it is" for aesthetic reasons...I really don't want it covered with a tarp for 4-5 months a yr. Some how, some way, I am going to come up with a permanent roof system or cover that will still show off the mosaic and keep the torrential rains out. Thats the plan, and any construction/altering will have to wait until it cools down and is dryer during the winter.

Bringing this thread back to life, since I have finally made a decision as to how I can avoid a complete saturation again.
I have thought, rethought, thought some more, looked at hundreds of pictures (AGAIN), and finally decided I just can't build an enclosure...its just not me, or the vision I have always had for my oven. I'm sticking with my igloo, just resurfacing/refacing from the support slab up.

Here is the plan, feel free to say it won't work or is a waste of time/money, but I am moving forward having bought the materials and procrastinated long enough (not to mention my tarp is getting ratty looking after nearly 6 months).

1) Covering the entire dome and entry with an additional 1" of blanket and applying rigidizer - not messing with chicken wire or wire mesh for this added layer. (since I know an all day fire can heat the top exterior of the dome to about 140 degrees I think an additional 1" is necessary to protect step 2)

2) I will apply a water tight moisture barrier to the entire dome, existing entry arch and extend down covering the top side of the cantilever hearth. This will consist of a single piece of 20 mil PVC pond liner which I hope will act in the same way as a shower pan liner (thats where I thought of the idea). I will stop short of using the PVC liner on the front facia of the oven, I think this area will still be too hot.

3) I will pour a concrete counter top on the top of the cantilever around the entire dome, over the pvc membrane. Ground and polished (my first attempt at this). This will bring the entire surface up to the level of my hearth firebricks.

4) New front/entry facia. Sorry to say, the mosaic flames and exposed firebrick will be covered by a new fired clay paver arch and facia that will include a stone ledge/shroud that will overhang the entry (hopefully giving a little more protection from rain getting in the entry)

5) A new "tiger stripe" stone finish over the PVC liner and added insulation - recovering the entire dome, no more blue tile mosaic. These are really cool looking tumbled (polished) stones (2-3" in diameter), I will set in Type S or Type N mortar (whichever I have in my garage).

I'm pretty certain no one has attempted any kind of waterproof membrane over an igloo, uncharted waters (pun intended). I have taken every precaution over the past 5-6 months, my oven is completely dry - been fired at least once a week for the past two months, so I know there is not any water that still needs driven out. If the plan fails, I'm only out $200 for the new materials and I will probably blow up the whole oven and buy one of James' modulars and build a stone enclosure.
This is an experiment, and since I am currently out of projects (my wife won't let me alter anything else), I going to wing it and see what happens.

RT - I covered my igloo w/ an acrylic stucco. It's only on it's second winter of fire and Ice but I see no problems. I do put a piece of tile over the vent entry to keep the rain/snow from entering the flu. Not so much from an avoid damage point - it just makes a mess when the carbon runs down onto the entry way. I think your idea will work - just seems like a lot of work to avoid a simple thing like rain.

RT,
I sympathise with you as I have a similar situation to you. My Pompeii is under the edge of the new outdoor kitchen patio and with no gutter on the roof (as I want the water to run into the garden and then overflow through the underground drain out into the street). However, since the oven is built into the garden on top of a retaining wall, and I haven't yet finished the drainage behind and around the oven, it sometimes gets wet and I find out when lighting the fire for an important event, like Christmas dinner!
Like you, it up to me to get off my a*** and just get it done. I need to extend the rood by a metre and put in the drain to take any water that falls anywhere near it away.
Only got myself to blame!

Les, I'm pretty certain my problem is the result of my exposed firebricks around the entry arch and the hearth. It only rains horizontally here in the summer (or appears to), so I really need to do something with the entry facia.
The initial saturation was so bad that I thought the oven would collapse due to my vermicrete hearth insulation being so saturated. It took 2 days just to keep a fire lit, 2 weeks before the support slab stopped weeping.....pretty serious amount of water.
Since I have to address the facia issue, it makes sense to seal up the dome - not to mention trying to blend the "old dome" with the new facia, which would be just as much trouble.
As I said, it is an experiment and something that will keep me busy for a couple of weekends.
My problem is my "vision". The first functional WFOs I saw were in Naples several years ago - mosaic tile igloos; ever since, that has been my idea of an authentic WFO. With unlimited resources I could build an enclosure that I would like; sorry to say, that was not the case before and is not the case today...but the $200 I just spent I can handle.

My advice to anyone building in a high moisture climate (rain or snow) - build an enclosure and protect your entry (or invest in a tarp manufacturer).

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